Crystalline Blood
by Umbradominus19
Summary: "Its all fun and games until someone gets thrown back in time". This is a philosophy many of Steven's friends and family call their own when three strangers from the future suddenly appear in Steven's kitchen due to temporal mishap. However, these strangers are much more closely related to the gems then one might think. So much so that the gems could call them part of their "blood"


**Please read the Author's Note at the end.**

* * *

This was Steven's chance. After what felt like an eternity he finally found an opening against his adversary. Moving into position, carefully and deliberately,

he waited for his foe to make their move possibly most fatal mistake.

The stage was set, the actors had played their part, and now it was time for the curtain call.

Steven smiled smugly. There was no way he could lose…

"… Checkmate." Connie said.

… That is of course if he saw the knight that was in distance to his king.

Mortified, Steven slammed his head on the table, making the chess board and pieces hop up and down slightly.

"Not again!" He exclaimed, his voice somewhat muffled by the table in front of his lips.

"Aw, don't worry about it Steven." Connie said with a reassuring smile. "It's only a game, after all."

"Maybe, but that doesn't make losing any more fun."

"True, but at least you did way better the last couple of times."

"I guess you're right…" Steven trailed off.

She was. While the first several times he was beaten in a matter of minutes ranging in the single digits, this match he had been surprisingly calculating. Though, granted, most of the pieces he had obtained from Connie were in response to his pawns being overtaken.

Steven couldn't help himself on that front, however. It was in his nature to want to protect the weak. And the pawns, excluding the king, were the pinnacle of weakness when it came to chess. For some reason or another, he wasn't able to resist picturing himself as the pawns and the more advanced pieces as the people in his life.

Garnet was the queen, a seemingly insurmountable force able to tackle just about any situation with ease.

Amethyst seemed similar to a rook, blunt and not open to much complex maneuvering, but great at taking out straightforward threats.

Pearl had to be the bishop, a somewhat strange piece that's hard to get used to, but that's only because it requires more intellect to work around. Set them up right, and the bishop can be a devastating piece.

The King was definitely Connie. Not because of weakness, no, she could handle herself just fine. Rather, it was Steven's urge to protect her at all costs that made his characterize this piece as his best friend.

With all these pieces working in conjunction, Steven supposed that it would be rather easy to see them as a one big family and a parallel to his own. However, there was one piece that he forgot to make a similarity to. One Steven wanted to make a connection to, but couldn't due to the lack of the familial presence of one in his life…

Connie, looking at Steven's face and sensing he was deep in thought, broke him out of it by saying:

"What're you thinking about, Steven?"

"Have you ever wanted an older sibling?"

Connie was slightly taken aback by this question, but answered honestly with:

"I haven't really given thought about it. What makes you say that?"

"Oh, I was just comparing the chess pieces to the gems, and when I came to the knight I didn't really know who to label them as. I wanted to say 'older brother or sister', but I don't have one…"

Sensing the melancholy in Steven's voice, Connie attempted to cheer him up.

"Well, there are plenty of people in town who could be considered your surrogate sibling. There's Jenny, Buck, Sour Cream, Sadie…"

"I guess you're right. But I was kinda thinking of them as people who also got involved with gem stuff. Besides you and sometimes dad, I only have the gems to turn to when those kind of things crop up."

"I see. Well, just be patient, I'm sure you'll meet some other people who'll want to know more about gem stuff." Connie reasoned "After all, it's not like an older brother or sister is going to appear out of thin air." She added with a chuckle.

Suddenly, something appeared out of thin air.

"-And that's how you do it!" An excited voice from the kitchen said.

Steven looked over to where the sound was emanating to see three people standing in kitchen who had certainly not been there before. They all appeared to be in their teens, with the group comprising of one girl and two boys.

The first guy, the one that had spoken, Connie and Steven couldn't see very well as his back was turned to them. But they could decipher that he had spikey dark grey hair, a lanky build, and was holding a strange looking machine in one of his hands. He was wearing a black and white striped shirt and blue jeans, and for some reason also sported black fingerless gloves.

The second young man was facing towards Steven and Connie, so they could make out his facial features. His face was very thin and elfish, and it gave off a prideful, almost arrogant look. His eyes were a bright blue and brimmed with what Steven and Connie could only describe as ambition. However, one of his eyes seemed rather… glassy, compared to the other. His clothing looked normal enough (A black shirt and grey pants) except for the coat he wore. It was long, black, and imposing, much like his ebon hair (though the hair was much shorter and messier in comparison to the coat).

Finally, the girl (who was also facing in Steven and Connie's direction) had hair that was very akin to Amethyst's: long, pale and purple. Her skin, on the other hand, was very fair, much like her figure: elegant and graceful. Perhaps the most striking feature about her was her piercing yellow eyes. Her attire consisted of a purple turtleneck sweater, a black and purple checkered skirt and black tights.

On the subject of the girl, both her and the boy in the black coat were looking rather… well, horrified would be one of the only accurate descriptions of the emotion they were projecting. Steven and Connie, meanwhile, were appearing extremely confused by the arrival of these three strangers.

"… What?" The grey haired young man questioned from his two other friends, perplexed at their expressions.

Said partners began pointing in the direction of Steven and Connie, hoping to point out what was dreadfully obvious to them. Following their instruction, he turned his face to the two best friends (who both could now see that his eyes were different colors, one red the other blue). Upon turning around and seeing Connie and Steven, his arms dropped to his sides like dead weight and his face morphed into that of his friends: utterly terrified.

"… You forgot to turn that thing off when you were doing the demonstration, didn't you?" The ebon haired individual asked the grey haired youth with as dry of a voice as he could muster.

"It seems as such." The lanky teen squeaked out.

"And we have no way of getting back to our own time?" The purple clad female questioned.

"Not unless we can somehow make another one of these." The lanky one explained whilst holding up the hand holding onto the strange machine.

"…" The black dressed young man stood in silence.

"…" As did the lanky teen.

The young woman, however, decided to break the quiet.

"… Well shit."

"Language!" Steven exclaimed, speaking for the first time since the three strangers had arrived.

"Um… who exactly are you and how did you get in here?" Questioned Connie.

"Excellent question, Connie." The black clad individual stated in as professional a voice as he could manage whilst stepping towards the girl in question.

"Wait, how do you know her name?" Steven questioned, with Connie's eyes bulging slightly at the statement of her name by a man she hadn't met before.

"That question will be answered in due time, Steven." The young man continued, Steven reacting quite similarly to Connie in regards to him having his name known by a stranger. "However, we first need to introduce ourselves."

"For starters, my name is Atticus." The dark haired young man stated, then looking over to the young woman.

"… Oh, I guess it's my turn. Hi, I'm Zoe." The purple clad woman stated with a smile and a wave, with Steven and Connie waving back awkwardly.

* **Thud. Thud. Thud***

Atticus, Zoe, Steven and Connie looked downwards to the unintroduced stranger, who was currently crouching and banging his head against the strange machine in his hands.

"… And the young man unnecessarily beating himself up you see before you is named Jack." Atticus said, introducing this Jack person himself.

"Alright, it's good to know your names, but we still need to know why you're here." Steven began. "I mean, the gems are probably gonna freak when they see you-"

"WAIT!" Jack exclaimed.

Everyone else in the room flinched greatly at Jack's sudden outburst.

"Jesus Christ, Jack, what's up?" Zoe questioned in an annoyed tone, rubbing her ears.

"This may not have been a screw-up! ... Well, at least not entirely." Jack continued.

"What do you mean?" Atticus inquired.

"Didn't you hear Steven say 'the gems are gonna freak'? That means they're alive at this point in time!"

Atticus and Zoe donned faces of deep surprise.

"… By god, I think you're right." Atticus said in low-voiced awe.

"Exactly!" Jack proclaimed, looking virtually ecstatic.

Zoe, however, looked on the verge of tears for whatever reason, albeit whilst smiling. This concerned Steven, so he asked:

"Um… are you okay, Zoe?"

"I'm… I'm fine." She said, trying to brush off Steven's concern while still looking shaken up. "Does… Does this mean we finally get to meet-"

Suddenly, the warp pad activated in a flash of light, revealing Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst.

"Hello, Steven." Pearl began. "We're back slightly early, Garnet said…" The pale gem was caught off guard by the three strangers staring at her and the other gems in what could only be described as reverence.

"Um… Ste-man… who are these guys?" Amethyst questioned.

"They do seem rather… odd." Garnet said bluntly.

Steven was going to answer, but was caught off guard by how amazed the three acquaintances by the presence of the gems. Each youth, by Steven and Connie's viewpoint, seemed to be focused on a different gem: Atticus on Pearl, Jack on Garnet, and Zoe on Amethyst.

Then, finally, they each said a word that explained so much… yet somehow so little.

"Mom." Jack said with a megawatt grin.

"Mommy." Said Zoe, tears rushing down her face.

"Mother…" Atticus said in dumbfounded awe.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… What?" The gems, Steven and Connie said simultaneously.

* * *

 **Good Morrow, People of Fanfiction! Sorry if this seems somewhat rough around the edges I just:**

 **A.) Haven't written in ages and I wanted to shake the rust off, as it were.**

 **and**

 **B.) Have had this idea in my head for quite some time and I finally found a way to express it, so I just sort of started writing and just payed attention to the minor errors.**

 **Anyways, as I said before, this is an idea that I've been wanting to put into writing for quite some time now and (with your help through reviews and suggestions) I hope to take it somewhat far.**

 **Also, as a side note, while the first couple of chapters are going to be focused on introducing certain character traits of the children and establishing the "conflict", I'm actually planning on making this somewhat more Slice of Life than anything (Well, as slice of life as you can get in the world of Steven Universe). As a result of this, after the first few introductory chapters, I'm going to give you lovely folks an opportunity to leave suggestions for future chapters. I won't be taking them as of now, but I will let you all know when I start to. Just thought I would let you know.**

 **Okay, enough of me rambling: Please leave your reviews and tell me what you think/what I can improve!**


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